What Raskin means, of course, is that the Mac is a mess, Microsoft Windows is a mess, GNU/Linux is a mess, and so is everything else based on the graphical user interface originally developed at Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center in the 1970s. Unfortunately or not, we have been stuck with much the same interface for 35 years, despite efforts to replace it.

Even the people who invented the GUI had reservations about it. Alan Kay, for example, once told me they would have liked to use software agents. However, they didn't know how to do an agent interface, but they did know how to do a GUI.

GUIs certainly have some disadvantages. One is that they are inherently slow, and they are not much faster even when you get to know them well. Experienced users soon start to use keyboard shortcuts that can not only be entered quickly but can be done in "motor memory". You no longer have to look at or think about commands, because they become automatic.

The mouse is even more of a hazard: it can lead to physical harm from RSI (repetitive strain injury).

When Raskin named the Macintosh project after his favourite Apple, it wasn't going to have a mouse or cursor keys: it would have "leap" keys instead. Sadly for him, when Steve Jobs was kicked off the Lisa development at Apple, he took over the Mac, and Jobs had other ideas. Raskin left the team in the summer of 1981, long before the Mac's launch in January 1984.

Even then, what Raskin wanted wasn't so much a Mac as an "information appliance" that ordinary people would be able to use without learning computing. He went on to develop the SwyftCard - a document processor on an expansion card that plugged into an Apple II - which was launched in 1985. ("Swyft" meant something like "Superb With Your Favorite Typing".)

That led to the Canon Cat Workprocessor, a small computer that did have two thumb-operated "leap" keys just in front of the spacebar, and a text-based interface, launched in 1987. You can still download the Cat's manual from Raskin's site, but the machine was soon discontinued, and few people ever got to use one.

Raskin has not given up. He has written a book about interface design, The Humane Interface, and there's an open source project called Jef Raskin's Humane Environment, which is implementing his user interface ideas. The latest version is the Alpha 4 Leap Demonstrator. The site lists 19 developers, including Jef and his son Aza - a lot by open source standards - but there's no sign of widespread support.

Raskin's aims are worthwhile. But whether he is right or wrong about GUIs in general, and the Mac in particular, it has introduced a lot more people to personal computing than the leap key.

Links

SwyftCard

masl.to/?R5B321C99

Swyft Information Appliance

masl.to/?H5C325C99

The Humane Interface (summary)

masl.to/?G5F311C99

Humane Environment Project

sourceforge.net/projects/ humane/

The Anti-Mac Interface by Don Gentner and Jacob Nielsen